Five African players have so far been named in the nomination list for the 2019 Ballon D’Or award. The French outfit that organizes the award has been releasing the list of nominees today, October 21.
After the announcement of twenty out of the thirty-man list; Liverpool duo of Senegal international Sadio Mane and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah were listed along with Arsenal and Gabonese international, Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang.
Kalidou Koulibaly of Senegal and Napoli as well as Riyad Mahrez of Algeria and Manchester city completed the list of Africa’s quintet.
Sadio Mané – Senegal
Mohamed Salah – Egypt
Riyad Mahrez – Algeria
Kalidou Koulibaly – Senegal
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – Gabon
Other players listed included:
Sergio Agüero
Frenkie de Jong
Hugo Lloris
Dusan Tadic
Kylian Mbappé
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Donny van de Beek
Marc-André ter Stegen
Cristiano Ronaldo
Alisson Becker
Matthijs de Ligt
Karim Benzema
Georginio Wijnaldum
Virgil van Dijk
Bernardo Silva
Heung-Min Son
Robert Lewandowski
Roberto Firmino
Lionel Messi
Luka Modric – 2018 winner
The Ballon d’Or is an annual football award presented by France Football. It has been awarded since 1956, although between 2010 and 2015, an agreement was made with FIFA and the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year, and known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or.